Star Wars: the phantom cost

The Management-Issues 'killjoy' prize of the week goes to a Chicago outplacement consultancy, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, who have calculated that the new Star Wars film, "Revenge of the Sith" will cost U.S. employers some $627 million in absenteeism.

The firm has estimated that about half the 9.4 million people attending opening days' viewings this Thursday and Friday will be full-time workers daring to take a day off work.

With full-time workers earning an average of $130.60 per day, the two-day cost in terms of lost wages and productivity resulting from 4.8 million absences would be $626.88 million.

But how much will all these film-goers be contributing back into other sectors of the economy, we wonder?